False Flag
by Canvas Sky
Summary: Operatives working in the B.O.W. field have been disappearing overseas. Leon's latest mission is to locate one MIA agent in particular: Ada Wong. Leon/Ada, Post RE4/RE5.
1. Chapter 1

False Flag

Chapter 1

Leon Scott Kennedy drummed his fingers on his coffee mug while waiting for the latest mission briefing to start. He had arrived ten minutes early as always and took the time to add milk and sugar to his fresh cup of coffee—a luxury he never had when out in the field. Staring absently into the light brown liquid, he wondered what the new assignment would be. The incidence of biohazard threats worldwide had slowed down significantly since Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar killed Albert Wesker in West Africa over a month ago; Leon had actually spent some measurable amount of time behind a desk for once, catching up on the relatively mundane task of bioterrorism-related paperwork. He knew the quiet wouldn't last, however. Wesker was but one of the many players in the clandestine world of Bio-Organic Weapons, and it was only a matter of time until someone rose up to fill the power vacuum he left behind.

Director Blake walked in, distributing mission dossiers as she walked to the front of the room, and Leon snapped himself out of his own thoughts.

"Good morning people, I hope the recent lull hasn't completely dulled your senses," she said as she opened the manila folder to the first document. Leon followed her lead.

"As you are all aware, six weeks ago Albert Wesker was confirmed as killed by a joint venture between the BSAA North America and West Africa branches. That was the good news. The bad news? I've received a list of deep-undercover government operatives who've since gone missing or turned up dead."

Leon started scanning names on the list. They appeared to be in alphabetical order.

_Brooks, Marcus__  
Status: Deceased  
Cause of Death: Pending Investigation_

_Franco, Russell__  
Status: MIA  
Last Known Location: Krakow, Poland_

"We do not know if the missing operatives have gone into hiding or if they have been taken into custody by whoever is doing this. Or if they're still alive, for that matter. The last communication we have is a standard check-in from three weeks ago, from an agent named Rosa Gonzalez."

He scanned down the list to her name.

_Gonzalez, Rosa M.__  
Status: MIA  
Last Known Location: Vienna, Austria_

"Obviously, our operatives have been compromised—every one we've lost contact with is involved with the B.O.W. field. An internal investigation is being launched to find the security leak."

_Richardson, Annika__  
Status: Deceased  
Cause of Death: Pending Investigation_

_Troy, Aaron  
Status: MIA  
Last Known Location: Bratislava, Slovakia_

"Your mission will be to locate the missing operatives and extract them to safety…or retrieve the remains if you're too late. You're also to find out what you can about who is behind these disappearances."

The final name on the list jumped out at Leon and became the focus of his entire field of vision; every other word on that piece of paper ceased to exist for him, save for that last entry:

_Wong, Ada  
Status: MIA  
Last Known Location: Prague, Czech Republic_

_Ada…what the hell?_ He stared the photo of her clipped to the file. It was a grainy, low-quality screencapture of a video transmission, but the sight of her still took his breath away—short, dark hair, stunning deep brown eyes, and a slightly naughty playful smile. She was still as drop-dead gorgeous as she had been when he'd seen her last year in Spain.

Memories of the Las Plagas incident only raised more questions in his mind. _How long has she been a government operative? Why didn't she tell me? Was she really working for Wesker?_

_Is she okay?_

If anyone else in the room saw him suddenly tighten his grip on the list of names, they were kind enough not to call any attention to it.

"The last page of the dossier has your location assignments. You'll leave at 2000 hours tonight. Any questions?"

Leon immediately flipped to the final page to find his name. Bratislava. They were sending him to Bratislava, which wasn't going to help him find Ada at all. The logical part of his brain told him it was for the best, that his feelings and personal history would compromise the mission if he went to Prague. A deeper intrinsic part of him screamed out that mission or no, he needed to find her and make sure she was safe.

"Sir! Permission to be on the mission to Prague." He wasn't aware of what he'd blurted out until he felt all eyes in the room turn to him.

Director Blake regarded him curiously with crossed arms on her chest. She was a good leader, and he had a great deal of respect for her. He tried not to show any uncertainty under her scrutiny. "Any particular reason, Kennedy?"

"I have some contacts in Prague, I think it would help the mission more if I worked from there." It was an outright lie, but the truth definitely wouldn't get him to where he needed to be. He forced himself to maintain eye contact with his superior.

Blake tilted her head almost imperceptibly, like she didn't quite believe him but didn't have a reason to doubt him either. After moments of silent regard, she spoke again. "Carter, you mind switching with Kennedy?"

"Well I'd love to go rescue this pretty lady in Prague, but sure, I'll head to Bratislava. The beer's great there, anyway."

"All right, it's settled then. Kennedy, you will head to Prague. Carter, you will go to Bratislava. The rest of you have your assignments. Dismissed."

Everyone gathered up their dossier papers and began to shuffle out of the room. On the way out, Carter, the self-professed ladies' man, clapped him on the back jovially. "Hey Leon, go get the girl!"

_You have no idea, Carter. _Leon tried his best to not react too much, managing to shoot him a wry grin. "That's the plan…"

He made a beeline to his desk and quickly began to pull up any information he could on Prague. Every piece of information counted, because he'd never even set foot in the Czech Republic before. In another computer window he ran a search for anything pertaining to Ada Wong. Leon could have looked her up in the government database before, but it was something he could never bring himself to do. After three years of silently mourning her memory, he only found out she survived Raccoon City because she happened to be mentioned in a report outlining Wesker's B.O.W. activities. In the heady mix of relief that she had survived Raccoon, abandonment that she never bothered to contact him, and betrayal that she was working with Wesker, it hurt too much to try to dig deeper.

After that, he had tried somewhat unsuccessfully to push thoughts of Ada from his mind, but little things constantly reminded him of her. Sometimes it was the fluttering of a deep crimson butterfly in South America, sometimes it was the lightly shiny scar tissue of the bullet wound in his left shoulder looking back at him in the mirror. Then they crossed paths once more in Spain, and Leon knew he'd never be able to truly let go of her. He accepted the fact that he'd be dead had she not helped him on that mission. But more than that, he felt that some force in the universe had reunited them for a reason. Leon was never completely sure if he believed in fate or not—but he sure as hell wanted to when he looked into her beautiful face for the first time in six years. Then as quickly as she appeared, she flew away with the Master Plagas, leaving him with nothing but a set of jet ski keys in his hand and a heavy pang of disappointment in his heart. At the moment he took some solace in discovering her status as a government operative, but he knew deep down he'd drop everything and go chasing after her in Prague regardless.

The search window flashed, indicating that the results were ready. There were less than a dozen files that mentioned Ada Wong, most of them archived activity reports about Albert Wesker and Umbrella. None of the reports indicated she was working for the government. None of the reports mentioned Spain either, but that was because Leon neglected to include Ada in his report and asked Ashley to keep quiet about her. One particular file was locked, but it required a Level 2 security clearance, which was above even Leon's. He closed the window in mild frustration, took a swig of his now cold coffee, and resumed his research on Prague; his flight was leaving in less than nine hours and he needed to be prepared.

He felt a light twinge at the site of his old bullet wound and touched his hand to it.

_Wherever you are, Ada, be safe._

--- --- ---

To be continued.

Author's Note:

If you're curious as to what a false flag is, Wikipedia has a nice succinct article explaining it.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed it at all, then I'm happy. I've always been a big fan of Leon/Ada; I think they have a wonderfully complicated dynamic. See you next chapter!


	2. Chapter 2

False Flag

Chapter 2

Gray clouds swirled in the early afternoon sky as Leon stepped out of the airport into the winter chill. He zipped up his leather jacket to keep warm and hailed a taxi. As the driver guided him to the hotel, Leon gazed out of the backseat window at the light pedestrian traffic and wondered if he'd even be able to find Ada. According to the mission details, her last transmission was about five weeks ago, when she was instructed to retrieve the research of a handful of scientists who had known connections to Umbrella and Wesker. It would have prevented the data from being resold on the black market now that those scientists didn't have a vengeful primary buyer. Any of them could have had contact with Ada, and Leon figured their homes would be as good a place as any to start his search.

The taxi pulled into the hotel and Leon picked up his duffel bag to go check in. He managed to remember a line out of his phrasebook and thanked the driver in Czech; this seemed to make the old man happy, but it might have been the fact that Leon probably left him an overly generous tip—he was too preoccupied to bother with the currency conversion.

After checking in, he tossed his bag onto the bed and started to gear up: handgun, knife, shoulder holster, butt pack, extra clips, PDA. He had an acquired tendency to travel light; the only items left in his bag were a few changes of clothes and basic toiletries. He also pulled up a map of the city in his PDA to note his destinations, his first being the home of a part-time lecturer of genetics at a nearby university.

Leon walked to the next district and found the house with little difficulty, but when he knocked on the door there was no answer. He called out to any potential inhabitants but was met with continued silence. Civility wasn't doing him any favors in this situation, so he decided to break in—except when he gripped the doorknob the door creaked open without resistance. Drawing his handgun, he cautiously stepped inside and closed the door.

The interior of the house was dark, save for the cracks of daylight that escaped in through gaps between the curtains. Leon scanned the immediate area for threats but only saw a room coated in a stale layer of dust; no one had been here in a while.

After clearing the ground level, he climbed the stairs to explore the upper floor. There, he instantly noticed the steady, dim glow of a computer monitor coming from an open doorway at the end of the hall and moved to investigate.

The computer displayed an e-mail client, and Leon leaned in to get a closer look at the subject headings. That was when he heard the cock of a gun and a familiar female voice.

"Put your hands where I can see them."

They'd done this dance before. Leon almost wanted to say he wasn't surprised, except for the part where she somehow managed to be behind him and was holding him at gunpoint, _again_.

He slowly raised his arms. "Ada. Do you ever just say 'hello'? Without a gun in your hand?"

"What are you doing here, Leon?" She had an edge to her voice, not completely hidden by her usual sultry playfulness and unflappable calm—something definitely made her nervous.

"I'm here to find you. Government orders."

"Which government?"

"How about the one you've been working for?"

"What th—how do you know that? That's highly classified information."

Leon wished he'd been facing her at that moment, because it sounded like she was the surprised one for once. "Look," he sighed, "there's a PDA in my left jacket pocket. Take it and you'll find my mission orders in there."

He felt her hand reach into his pocket for the device. She was probably close enough for him to disarm her, but he didn't want to spook her so he stayed perfectly still. Ada had to be aware of this too, based on their previous encounter, but she needed to test him as much as she needed to see those mission orders. Silence filled the room as she read over the documents in his PDA.

"Can I turn around now?"

"Fine. I'm putting the gun away."

Her eyes were focused on reading when he turned around, and he took the opportunity to study her. She was dressed rather simply today, wearing a red halter top, black figure-hugging trousers, and a matching black set of heels. A stylish lightweight trench coat concealed the holster at her thigh. Her face remained stoic as she read, but Leon noted the bags under her eyes and wondered just what she'd been up to since losing contact.

Ada glanced up at him. "So you're just here following orders?"

"That's right." He wasn't lying, technically—those were his official orders after all.

"I see," said Ada, almost sounding disappointed. She leaned back casually on the wall, tilting her head slightly at him. "Well you found me, now what?"

"I need to get you to safety. I'll contact headquarters and have them fly you back on a secure flight."

"No, not yet. We don't know who leaked these agent names, or how far this leak of yours goes," she tossed the PDA back to him with the list of missing agents pulled up. "I was just trying to find out why my contacts have been disappearing. This explains a lot."

"Is that why you're in this house?"

"I stole a hard drive of Dr. Sokol's viral research a few weeks ago. The person I was supposed to hand it off to never picked it up from the dead drop location. I wanted to see if he's had any contact with Wesker since then and find out what the hell's going on. Looks like the doctor's long gone, though."

"Wesker? You do know he was killed in Africa six weeks ago, right?"

Ada scoffed and rolled her eyes. "I heard that report, too. It was believable until he tried to have me killed."

Leon's head shot up in alarm. "What?"

"A team of armed men came after me a few weeks back," she shrugged nonchalantly as if they had showed up with flowers rather than guns. "I took care of them…and _persuaded_ one to tell me who sent them…it was Wesker. Since then I've been laying low and trying to gather information."

Leon crossed his arms as he processed the news. "Shit, this guy won't stay down."

"I need to get going." Ada walked out of the room and down the hallway, heels clicking neatly on the wooden floor as she went.

"Ada, wait." He started after her, matching her pace. "Where are you going?"

"According to Dr. Sokol's messages, two weeks ago he was instructed to go to a certain part of the Vysočina region southeast of the city. There's a suspected research facility in the woods there," she said, never breaking her stride; she was nearly at the front door now. As she was about to open it, Leon reached out and grabbed her hand.

He held it firmly—not hard enough to cause pain but secure enough to prevent her from slipping away. "I'm coming with you. It'll be safer if we stay together, and it's my job to look out for you."

They both froze at that, the far too familiar words taking them back to a different time and a different place, to a night of not-quite-promises and missed opportunities. They stayed that way for a few seconds, briefly adrift in the memories of a lost city, until Ada turned her head sideways to respond to him. Her hair obscured her eyes as she spoke.

"My car's parked across the street. It's the red one."

Leon let out the breath he wasn't aware he was holding and smiled.

"Of course it is."

--- --- ---

To be continued.

Author's Note:

I think I mentally spaced on what year RE5 actually took place, so to simplify things for me, I place the Kijuju incident as happening shortly after the Harvardville incident (making this story late 2005ish, or roughly seven years since Raccoon City). The official timeline is a bit different, I believe, but that is the beauty of fiction.

Thanks again for reading, hope you're enjoying it. I'm always looking to improve, so constructive feedback is always welcome! And thanks to everyone who's taken the time to leave a review so far! Until next time.


	3. Chapter 3

False Flag

Chapter 3

The journey to Vysočina was about an hour by car, but the first ten-minute leg of the journey was spent in silence: Ada, because she'd been keeping secrets for longer than she could easily recall, and Leon, because he'd been holding on to too many questions for too many years.

He glanced at her as she drove, thinking back to the last time they were alone in a moving vehicle. Last year, even as they sped along a dark sea on a motorboat, he had questions he needed answered. But it was like she had a sixth sense about these things, because the second he turned to ask her where she'd been for six years, she violently turned the boat, throwing him against the side. He forgot his line of thought entirely as she rappelled away. This time, on land, he felt sure she wouldn't swerve the car into a tree to avoid his questions.

He was pretty sure, at least.

"So how long have you been working for the US government?" he asked with forced casualness.

"Do you really want to do this now?"

"We have about an hour to kill. And I don't know when you're going to vanish off the face of the earth again."

She half laughed and half scoffed. "You know me too well, Leon."

"Thing is," he said with an air of annoyance as he turned his face to look at the scenery outside, "I don't." The words sounded bitter coming out of his mouth; he hated that but having Ada raise her personal walls again made him do the same in return.

They settled into an uneasy silence after that and let the empty rural countryside churn past them quietly for a while.

"Officially," Ada said after a time, "a little under two years. Unofficially? That's a bit…complicated."

Leon sat up straighter in his seat, wanting to hear more.

Knowing she was trapped for the duration of the journey, she sighed and continued. "In Raccoon, you reminded me that there are still good people in the world. It was something I'd forgotten after working in espionage for so long. And I saw people suffer during that outbreak, Leon—I didn't want something like that to happen to so many innocent people again. So I started to leak intel to the anti-Umbrella agencies. Just little bits here and there over the years, not enough to raise suspicion about me. Eventually I was formally recruited by your government to act as a double agent. Not a lot of good I've done, though—I heard about Harvardville, by the way."

He knew that living the life she did, it was unusual for her to reveal so much of herself at once, maybe even difficult. Her sudden candor made him want to share something with her in return.

"I wasn't just assigned to this mission...I volunteered for it. Well, lied my way into it might be more accurate."

"Leon Scott Kennedy? Lie? The world must be ending," she smirked.

"I told my superior I had contacts in Prague so I'd be assigned here instead of another guy," said Leon with a laugh, "I've never even been here before."

"But why lie?"

"I wanted to make sure you were safe. And I didn't trust anyone else to do it but me."

"Oh." She turned her head, ostensibly to check the side view mirror, but Leon swore he saw a blush creeping up her cheek.

"And because I wasn't able to keep you safe seven years ago. I'm sorry you woke up alone, back then." He reached over to hold her free hand, squeezing her fingers to emphasize his apology. After finding out she had lived, the guilt of leaving her behind haunted him for years.

She shook her head. "It's fine, Leon, you thought I was dead. I thought I was dead. That's why...I told you how I felt." Her hand moved away to shift gears.

He recalled that moment with searing clarity. Shoulder burning from his bullet wound, he held a battered and bleeding Ada as she fought back unconsciousness long enough to tell him she'd fallen in love with him. The scene had played itself out in his mind countless times in the intervening seven years, both in wakefulness and sleep.

"Do you still feel the same?" Perhaps it was foolish of him to ask so abruptly, and maybe he was taking advantage of the confined space of the car, but he had to know.

She let her eyes briefly move off the road to meet his before answering, "I do."

The simple sincerity of her voice shocked him; he had been expecting her to dodge the question. Letting his own guard down, he told her something he'd never had the chance to say before.

"I still feel the same, too. Even after everything that's happened." He'd seen her maybe two days out of the last seven years, but he knew he couldn't feel this way about anyone else. "But why didn't you ever tell me you were alive after Raccoon?"

"It was easier not to."

"Easier? It was easier to let me think you _died_? I blamed myself for years, Ada, I mourned you. Do you know why I trained so hard as an agent? I thought you died because I wasn't strong enough, because I wasn't fast enough to save you!" He had to stop to take a deep breath.

"It was easier for _me_, Leon," she said softly. "I thought it would be easier to avoid you if you didn't know I was alive. I wasn't supposed to help you in Raccoon, and I barely made it out alive that time. In Spain, I wasn't even supposed to be seen with you. Whenever you're involved, I wind up compromising the mission."

"So don't compromise the mission for me. I don't want you to disappear anymore."

"Leon, I--"

As she attempted to speak, an inhuman roar tore through the air. They were both all too accustomed to the noises made by virus-enhanced creatures and immediately clicked into mission mode; Ada turned off the main road and sped up toward the sound as Leon checked his gun.

"I guess we found the place," said Ada, voice steely and professional once more.

Ahead on the dusty road, in the rapidly fading light of dusk, stood a solid concrete barricade that was roughly the five feet high and painted a camouflage pattern to match the surrounding area. Much further down the road they could see the outline of a building.

Leon slid his handgun back into his thigh holster and opened the car door. "Care for a stroll tonight?"

Ada made her way to the trunk and took out a pump-action shotgun. "It's no long walk on the beach, but it'll have to do." She handed him a TMP.

Another scream traveled from the building then, this one most definitely human and in excruciating pain.

Looking at each other and coming to a silent agreement, Leon and Ada climbed the barrier and broke into a brisk run in the direction of the sound.

-- -- --

To be continued.

Thank you for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

False Flag

Chapter 4

They made their way up the road quickly but cautiously, constantly scanning the landscape for potential threats. As they neared the building, they stopped to examine several corpses in front of the entrance. Given the uniforms and earpieces, they were clearly once the security of the compound.

"Whatever they were guarding, they didn't do a very good job," remarked Ada as she inspected claw and bite marks on one of the bodies. "Looks like something was hungry too."

Leon started to pat down the mauled corpse for some sort of identification but to his surprise found a bullet wound instead. He turned the body on its side to confirm a suspicion—the wound in the front was an exit wound.

"Ada, look," he motioned to the bullet hole in the back of the corpse's jacket. "He was shot in the back."

She knelt down next to him to take a closer look. "That explains why there's not as much blood around the claw lacerations. He must have been long dead before something decided to chew on him."

"Let's check the other bodies."

Every body they checked had bullet holes, though not every guard had been shot in the back.

"I've seen this sort of thing before," said Ada. "They let someone through, someone who had the clearance to get in. The second the guards turned their backs was the second the gunfire started. By the time the others realized what was happening, it was too late."

"Wesker?"

"No, this isn't his style. He wouldn't bother with subterfuge to kill a bunch of low-level security guards."

"The question is, if these guards have been dead for a while, who did we just hear—?"

He stopped talking when he heard the growling, a low rumble that seemed to permeate their surroundings. He quickly located the source of the sound and pointed his TMP at the wolf that stalked towards them.

"Leon," warned Ada, "look around us."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw them. Several more wolves were joining the first; the whole pack had them flanked.

They made only a brief moment of eye contact, but both knew what the other was thinking. Slowly rising from their kneeling positions, they started to back up, weapons drawn, towards the safest place they had: the building entrance.

The still-advancing lead wolf began to shake violently, howling monstrously as tendrils burst from its back.

"Shit," cursed Leon, "they're infected with Las Plagas!"

They both broke into a run, closing the distance to the door as the rest of the wolf pack convulsed through their mutations. The door itself, they found, was heavily reinforced, the only opening mechanism a number pad with a card slot.

"Cover me!" directed Ada. She slid a card into the slot and her fingers started to dance over the pad. "I took this off one of the bodies. Don't know the code though."

The wolves were now no more than forty feet away now and still advancing. Leon opened fire with the TMP, striking the first wolf squarely in the head with several short bursts. That wolf dropped to the ground but that provoked the remaining wolves, which now ran to their targets.

"I need your shotgun!" Leon shouted over the sound of the suppression fire he was using to keep the wolves at bay. He'd managed to kill two more and do some light damage to the rest of the pack, but still they advanced.

Without turning away from her ceaseless input of number sequences, Ada handed her shotgun to him. He quickly dropped the now-empty TMP for the fresh weapon, pumping it just in time to shoot a wolf as it lunged towards him, hitting it where the parasite lay and knocking it back several feet. It didn't get back up. More wolves ran towards them and Leon sent them flying back with shotgun blasts.

Finally the light in the number pad turned green and the metal door hissed open.

"Got it, Leon, let's go!" Ada pushed open the door and ran inside.

As he turned to run into the building one of the wolves shot out its tendrils, catching him in the legs and knocking him down. He grunted as he hit the ground, rolling over just in time to catch the mutated wolf as it pounced on him. In his position, all he could really do was try to hold back the wolf's head—if Leon let it bite him in the neck it would be all over. It clawed at his arms and sides, breaking skin and drawing blood. His survival instinct was still cycling through options when the weight of the creature suddenly left his body—Ada had given it a swift and devastating kick that knocked it off Leon and probably broke its neck in the process. She helped pull him up and drag him into the relative safety of the building, slamming the door shut as the rest of the wolf pack regrouped for another attack.

Leon sat down against the wall, panting. Ada knelt down in front of him, checking his wounds.

"Leon, are you okay?" With one hand under his bicep and the other holding his fingers, she gently lifted up his left arm to inspect the cuts that had been inflicted by the claws. "Sorry, I was busy making sure this room was safe. I didn't see you get knocked down."

"I'm fine…just some flesh wounds." He enjoyed her light touch as she moved on to his other arm. It was a nice change from being held at gunpoint.

He moved to adjust himself to a more comfortable resting position but a sharp stinging sensation in his midsection caused him to suddenly suck in his breath and slump back down.

"Hold still," ordered Ada. She leaned in close and saw a slash about six inches long in the right side of his shirt. Before lifting up the hem, her eyes met Leon's, asking his permission; he nodded. The light was dim but she could see the bloody gash that now marred his abdomen. It wasn't a pretty wound, but neither was it life-threatening. She let out a sigh of relief at that.

"It's big, and a little deeper than I'd like it to be, but you'll live. The blood will clot but we should still cover it up." She unzipped the utility pocket in her holster and pulled out a roll of bandages and a small canister of first aid spray.

She emptied the contents of the spray over his wound and noticed his expression relax as the analgesic took effect. The antibiotics in the formula would take care of the rest. Next she carefully began to bind the wound, her head dipping close to his whenever she had to loop the bandage around his back.

"Thanks for not wrapping the bandages over my clothes this time," Leon quipped with an affectionate smile.

"No virus sample to chase after this time. Also this is a lot less complicated than a bullet wound." She paused with a sheepish look on her face at the mention of that incident, before leaning in to kiss him on the cheek. "I never really thanked you for that."

They both became acutely aware of the position they were now in: their lips hovered inches apart and her hands rested on the bare skin of his abs where the shirt was still pulled up. They knew how they felt—but they also knew they were in hostile territory, where the distraction could have deadly consequences. Reluctantly and somewhat awkwardly, they separated.

"Ada, promise me something."

"What is it?" asked Ada as she set off to explore the building's interior.

Leon got up to follow her, the movement made easier with a treated wound. "After this is over, I want to spend one day with you. Just one day, you and me, doing normal things. No biohazards, no weapons, no spy business."

"All right."

At that, Leon felt a renewed sense of purpose in his mission; the sooner they figured out the leak, the sooner he'd be able to take Ada back to headquarters safely.

"Let's get this finished then." He walked ahead of her to take point, and together they moved deeper into the building.

... ... ...

Author's Note: Sorry it's been so long since my last update, it's been a busy couple of months. If you're still here, thanks for sticking with the story! Thanks for all the wonderful reviews too, they make my day :)


	5. Chapter 5

False Flag

Chapter 5

Using the keycard Ada found, they found Dr. Sokol working inside a locked lab, typing furiously at a computer. Laptops and hard drives surrounded him in disarray.

"Hands in the air!"

His head shot up at their intrusion and his eyes widened when he saw Ada. "You! You stole my work!"

"And you didn't make it very difficult. Your birthday as your password? Really now."

"Shut up! I've had to recreate all my research here because of you."

"Why here specifically?"

"He won't let me leave until I give him the research."

"He?"

"That will be enough of that, Doctor " said a voice over the PA system. Ada froze at the sound.

"Wesker."

"Ada Wong, still alive I see. And in company with Agent Kennedy, no less. You'll make a lovely pair of corpses."

"Shouldn't you be a lovely corpse? At least a charred one after the rocket and the volcano, " quipped Leon.

Ada smirked at him. Always the smartass.

They heard typing over the PA before the voice spoke again. "Enough. I have sufficient data from you, Doctor Sokol, you may go."

A high-pitched whine shrieked out of the speaker, causing Dr. Sokol to recoil in pain. He screamed as he doubled over onto his knees, convulsing all the way down.

"Hey! Are you all right?"

"Leon, stand back! He's -"

The scientist's arms suddenly lashed out, grotesquely tripled in size and knocked the both of them back by several feet. They rolled as they hit the floor and righted themselves for a counterstrike.

Leon recovered first. "Stand down or I'll shoot!"

Dr. Sokol, if he could still be called that, made no sign of comprehension, and started to shamble towards the pair with arms poised to strike.

The PA crackled back to life. "Kill them, " was all that came out of the speaker before it fell silent once more.

The former scientist complied with the voice, clicked his new giant claws menacingly, and turned to lunge at Ada. With no choice but self defense, Leon and Ada opened fire. Their bullets struck his skull and torso repeatedly, but with little effect. Sokol made it to Ada, picked her up, and hurled her into a console on the other side of the room. The console cracked and sparked on impact and sent a crumpled Ada to the ground.

Leon simply stood still, frozen by a terrible feeling of deja vu even as Sokol turned his attention to him. He was reliving the worst of his nightmares from Raccoon City as he stared at Ada's limp form, desperately hoping she would move, or groan, or pull a gun on him again - anything to show him she was still alive.

A deep growl wrenched Leon's attention back to the immediate threat of the mutated scientist. The creature's skin had become chitinous; the earlier bullets may as well have been pebbles for all their effectiveness. Sokol lunged again. Leon dodged the brunt of the attack, but was knocked off his feet when one of the massive arms flailed back and caught him in the leg. The awkward momentum sent his gun sliding across the floor and out of his reach. Unarmed and cornered, Leon watched as Sokol closed in on him, arms raised for a deathblow.

Sokol then froze in position and smoke started to emanate from his head as he roared out in pain. Finally, he collapsed, revealing Ada standing behind him holding an exposed power cord from the smashed console.

"Good to know electricity still works," she managed to say, before taking an uneven step and falling over.

Leon scrambled to catch her, retreating a safe distance from the live wire before gently lowering her to a more comfortable position in his lap.

"Ada...are you okay?"

"I think I'll live," she groaned, "...as soon as this headache goes away." She couldn't say much else before Leon threw his arms around her and held on as if she would fall through the floor if he didn't.

"I thought it happened again," he said in a quiet voice. "I thought it happened again and I couldn't stop it."

In that moment, Ada understood something about Leon and what she meant to him. The night they met was his first day as a cop; she knew the type - protect and serve, always wanting to help poeple. She could only imagine how much it broke him to witness all the death and destruction in Raccoon City.

She was his first and most devastating loss.

Ada put a hand to his cheek, turning his face so he could look at her. "Hey, look, I'm fine, really." She was surprised at the gentleness in her own voice. "I've been through worse than that."

When he still looked shaken, she unzipped a hidden compartment in her holster and placed a small object in his hand.

Leon turned the tiny piece of metal over in his hand. He immediately recognized the misshapen lump as a previously fired bullet; the front was a little shredded and its finish was dulled as if it was old. It looked to be a 9mm round and when he examined it more closely he saw dark coppery flakes that resembled dried blood. He did not understand at first, but slowly his eyes widened as he realized what it could be.

"Is this from...?"

"It's exactly what you think it is."

He ran his thumb over it in wonder. He remembered her removing the bullet despite the delirious pain at the time but he hadn't known she had kept it...and held onto it for seven years.

"Why do you have this?"

"It's my good luck charm. Has been for a long time. Whenever I think it's the end, that reminds me that you're still out there fighting. So I keep fighting too. You saved me once; but you never really stopped."

Feeling the weight of the old bullet on his palm, he felt the incontrovertible truth of what he meant to Ada Wong. Leon broke into a small smile, one that was only for her. "I don't think I'll ever stop."

She moved to sit up and caressed his cheek. "Okay. Let's finish this."

He brought his hand to hers and squeezed, giving her charm back in the process. They then stood and rechecked their guns.

"If he used that PA system he has to be in the building somewhere," Leon said, eyeing the old wall-mounted speaker.

"I'd bet it's on the top floor somewhere. Wesker always liked the privacy, and having a roof escape. In fact we should hurry before he can use that escape - I saw an elevator down the hall earlier."

They ran down the hallway and into the elevator at the end. While ascending to the top floor, Leon noticed Ada in contemplation with her hand over her hidden holster compartment, and smiled.

_We're going to win this._

Apologies for not updating this in forever! I'm pumped for all the RE Leon/Ada action this year so decided to try and finish this. Thanks for reading!


End file.
